


Fireflies at Night

by Blackdresses13



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Dancing, Domestic Fluff, Fireflies, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:34:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27258742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackdresses13/pseuds/Blackdresses13
Summary: There are fireflies in Radiant Garden, and they like to dance with the Strifeharts in their backyard.
Relationships: Cloud/Leon (Kingdom Hearts), Leon (Kingdom Hearts)/Squall Leonhart/Cloud Strife
Kudos: 23





	Fireflies at Night

**Author's Note:**

> Just some domestic Strifehart fluff (and lowkey angst because idk Cloud has so much angst potential)

He feels a shuffling above him; now, the warmth hugging his chest has drifted away slightly, leaving just enough space for the rush of cool air from the ceiling fan to prickle the skin over his sternum. His eyebrows curl together in grief until he feels a hand place itself on his shoulder.

“Le, wake up,” says Cloud, voice kept quiet but still bubbling in the way it did when they were teenagers.

Leon perks his left eye open to see a smirking Cloud gazing down at him with crystal blue eyes, a small ring of green circling the pupil.

“You wanna go?”

It’s roughly twenty minutes till sunset; the two had tangled up on the couch after dinner, and Leon had accidentally dozed off underneath Cloud. Mid-July in Radiant Garden means hot days and warm evenings; it means crowded daytime trails and stuffy night clubs; it means eagles during the day and fireflies at night.

Leon opens his right eye and tries to hold back a smile, “Only for a bit, yeah?”

Cloud kisses the bridge of Leon’s nose and then pulls him upward quickly, dragging him outside through the back porch.

And,  _ Oh _ , Leon thinks.

It’s like a gravity-defying, bioluminescent first snow. Little green-gold pulses decorate their backyard like shimmering drops of magic after a healing spell. The fireflies are like dancing feathers that gracefully swirl in the eye of a hurricane. Except, they don’t need the cool breeze to stay aloft. They just glide through the leaves of the overhanging trees, melting themselves into the foliage only to break free again a second later.

Cloud pulls Leon down the incline until they are in the center of the yard, their bare feet kissed by the cool blades of grass. Cloud wraps his arms around Leon’s neck, and Leon slides his hands down Cloud’s spine, tracing every crevice down to the small of his back. And then they start to sway back and forth amidst the golden glow.

-

To be fair, Leon knows this hardly counts as dancing. The first time they did this, they were both sixteen and home alone on a summer evening at Cloud’s house. The mood had been gray earlier, with Cloud trying too hard to fulfill a parent’s role to his younger brother. After exclaiming that he wasn’t a child anymore, Zell stormed out the front door, leaving Cloud alone on the front steps. Leon came over after a small text for company and found a red-eyed Cloud with his knees tucked up to his chest leaning against the back of the house. They sat for a while, just looking out into the fields. The outskirts of Nibelheim were mostly undeveloped at that point, and, after the property line, the rough terrain of the plains surrounding the mountains created a solemn atmosphere.

Then, the fireflies came out.

It wasn’t all of a sudden, of course, but Leon started noticing their faint glow blipping in and out of reality all over the yard. Cloud had relaxed by then, his head leaning on Leon’s shoulder, and their fingers melded together. As more and more fireflies came out, Cloud started to perk up even more.

“You know how dancing in the rain is overrated?”   
Leon let out a breath through his nose and then turned his head to nuzzle into Cloud’s soft blond spikes.

Cloud keeps going, “It always feels like it’s nature’s show. All the water is crashing down, so you’re trying to compete with that kind of energy. I can’t win at that.”

Leon shifts his head back forward, eyes glued on the nothingness that is the open plain. “It doesn’t have to be a battle.”

Cloud sighs. “But then I’d just be stealing the show, drawing everything’s attention away from the thing that all of existence came to see: the rain. I want to dance  _ with _ something. I want the environment to join up in arms alongside me, not against me, just  _ once _ .”

Leon understands where he’s coming from. He wants things to not always feel so aggressive; he hates that itching urge to hide away in his bedroom and curl up on his mattress. He doesn’t want to have to fight against adversity; he wants the tide to flow with him, pushing his strokes in the exact direction he’s headed.

So he knows he can’t create a universe where things work perfectly; Leon can’t untangle Cloud’s mind and weed out all of the harsh thought patterns that make him feel unworthy of the roles that he excels in. But he can make Cloud feel less alone.

Leon turns and looks down at the blond, his flushed cheeks, a sign that he might start crying if Leon doesn’t do something quick. “Do you want to dance with the fireflies?”

“What?” Cloud says, looking up.

“You said the rain is always fighting against you, but the fireflies look like they’re waltzing in the breeze. Care to join me?”

Cloud searches Leon’s eyes, but there isn’t anything malign in them. The cool blue just looks back at him, painting I-love-yous into the open air. Leon can’t say it yet; he doesn’t know if his mouth can shape the phrase. But he can radiate the feelings in his chest out through his eyes.

And maybe Leon pretends that when Cloud stands up and offers him a hand, he’s saying,  _ I love you, too _ .

-

They keep going for almost an hour, the sun well beneath the horizon and the majority of the bugs burrowing away into different corners of their back garden. There are no more sibling fights between Cloud and Zell because ten years is plenty of time to bury the hatchet and move three hours away from each other. Leon doesn’t hide in his bedroom anymore because his old house was torn down six years ago, and he lives with his husband now. Nobody lives in Nibelheim because a business tycoon bought the land and turned the village into an electric company.

But there are fireflies in Radiant Garden, and they like to dance with the Strifeharts in their backyard.

Eventually, Cloud tucks himself right up against Leon, curling his head into the lion’s neck. He just breathes as the swaying gets slower and slower, feeling Leon’s arms around him growing tighter, wanting to capture every part of his love for Cloud into this one small gesture.

Leon can say  _ I love you _ , now, but he doesn’t need to. He doesn’t need to tell Cloud he loves him. All Leon has to do is hold him or look at him or feel him breathing next to him, and everything just radiates out of him like the Sun. And then every time Cloud smiles back at him, nudges his shoulder, or plays with his hair, he can tell that Cloud feels that love and sends as much back as he can weather. 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I decided to make Zell Cloud's little brother. I don't know why.
> 
> (also um: this goes out to all the Yozoofy stans out there.)


End file.
